From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Stephen J. Turnbull" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: strokes-mode and touchscreen patents? was Re: emacs and touchscreen Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2011 23:56:24 +0900 Message-ID: <87aaj099t3.fsf@uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1295190207 17138 80.91.229.12 (16 Jan 2011 15:03:27 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2011 15:03:27 +0000 (UTC) Cc: joakim@verona.se, emacs- devel To: "David O'Toole" Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sun Jan 16 16:03:23 2011 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1PeU8Y-0007It-CL for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sun, 16 Jan 2011 16:03:22 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:36752 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1PeU8X-0000MY-Dj for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sun, 16 Jan 2011 10:03:21 -0500 Original-Received: from [140.186.70.92] (port=37321 helo=eggs.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1PeU8N-0000Iv-Fi for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 16 Jan 2011 10:03:16 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1PeU8M-0002oH-Mu for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 16 Jan 2011 10:03:11 -0500 Original-Received: from mgmt1.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp ([130.158.97.223]:54702) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1PeU8M-0002km-Da for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 16 Jan 2011 10:03:10 -0500 Original-Received: from uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp [130.158.99.156]) by mgmt1.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (Postfix) with ESMTP id 999F73FA0570; Mon, 17 Jan 2011 00:02:47 +0900 (JST) Original-Received: by uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (Postfix, from userid 1000) id 1BE3F1A2FF6; Sun, 16 Jan 2011 23:56:24 +0900 (JST) In-Reply-To: X-Mailer: VM undefined under 21.5 (beta29) "garbanzo" ed3b274cc037 XEmacs Lucid (x86_64-unknown-linux) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6 (newer, 3) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:134605 Archived-At: David O'Toole writes: > Something occurred to me today after watching my touchscreen > strokes-mode video. Could the gesture recognition in strokes.el either > 1. be threatened by patents that existed prior to 1997 (the first year > of copyright listed in strokes.el) or 2. qualify as prior art for > techniques patented later? 1. Yes. But why limit to earlier patents? It infringes patents granted afterward, as well. Once a patent is granted, it is the defendent's problem to break the patent, not the patentholder's problem to justify the patent. This is very costly even if you have rock-solid prior art. 2. Yes. But see point 1 for why this doesn't really matter to you unless you're really rich.